Down in Denver a rural refuge for bookstore lovers

Stephentown store takes name from Kerouac's writing

PAUL BUCKOWSKIA view of the outside of Down in Denver Books on Tuesday, June 6, 2017, in Stephentown, N.Y. (Paul Buckowski / Times Union)

PAUL BUCKOWSKIA view of the outside of Down in Denver Books on Tuesday, June 6, 2017, in Stephentown, N.Y. (Paul Buckowski / Times Union)

PAUL BUCKOWSKIEmily Martin of Albany, right, searches through the books at Down in Denver Books, as owner Louise Hendry, background, works at the counter on Tuesday, June 6, 2017, in Stephentown, N.Y. Martin who was on her way to The Clark museum saw the store as she drove by and turned around to come in a shop. "I just love to read" Martin said. (Paul Buckowski / Times Union)

PAUL BUCKOWSKIEmily Martin of Albany looks at books on the porch at Down in Denver Books on Tuesday, June 6, 2017, in Stephentown, N.Y. Martin who was on her way to The Clark museum saw the store as she drove by and turned around to come in a shop. "I just love to read" Martin said. (Paul Buckowski / Times Union)

PAUL BUCKOWSKIEmily Martin of Albany, right, searches through the books at Down in Denver Books, as owner Louise Hendry, background, works at the counter on Tuesday, June 6, 2017, in Stephentown, N.Y. Martin who was on her way to The Clark museum saw the store as she drove by and turned around to come in a shop. "I just love to read" Martin said. (Paul Buckowski / Times Union)

"Soon it got dusk, a grapy dusk, a purple dusk over tangerine groves and long melon fields; the sun the color of pressed grapes, slashed with burgandy red, the fields the color of love and Spanish mysteries."

— Jack Kerouac, "On The Road"

A small stand on the porch of Down in Denver books entices suspense in visitors. For $2 and the extent of a shopper's curiosity, one can purchase a blind-date book that is wrapped in brown paper with a few Tinder-style lines to help decipher what lies within:

It's only the amuse bouche to the endless surprises and delights that await readers at the Stephentown used book store.

The bookstore is a wing of a rambling dusky purple Colonial set in a small valley between lush rolling hills. It's a church, of sorts, a place of worship crafted in elegy to the beatnik era and its greatest proponent, Jack Kerouac.

Built in the 1840s, with past lives as a general store, post office and gas station, the house took on its current status as bookstore in 1988 when Dan Lorber — a writer and beatnik aficionado — turned the house into a used and rare book emporium. The name for the store comes from a poem within Kerouac's epic scroll, "On the Road," which is heralded as the quintessential primer to the raison d'etre of beatnik culture.

Whereas churches use stained glass, relics and hierograms to tell the story of a religion, Down in Denver takes a more subtle approach. The lilac-colored clapboard with burnished crimson trim pulls from passages in "On the Road," while framed photos of Kerouac stand in place of images of Jesus. The altar is a bookshelf, the cross is the book, and communion is offered with every page turn.

"Thank you for this magical treasure of a place. I hadn't realized I needed a refuge until I was already through the door," says an index card hung by the counter and till. Instead of prayer candles, customers offer thoughts and remembrances through a vintage typewriter that clanks out each character with the same steady cadence as one might recite the Lord's prayer.

Orson, a sleek gray bookstore cat who nimbly maneuvers around stacks of books, is the companion of Louise Hendry, who now owns the store and lives in the residential half of the building. The native of Scotland was living in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., as a public relations executive with the dream of someday owning a bookstore, possible in her retirement.

" 'What do you want out of life?' I asked, and I used to ask that all the time of girls."

— Jack Kerouac, "On the Road."

"I had always loved books and dreamed of owning a bookstore," says Hendry in a tempered Aberdeen brogue. A friend who had happened upon Down in Denver in July 2015 called to tell her the store was for sale. She inquired with Lorber and within a matter of days was flying to upstate New York to see the house and bookstore for herself.

"This is everything I've ever wanted in my life. I didn't need to think about it," she says.

"Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road."

Hendry packed up Orson, her Fiat and a U-Haul and came east soon after. She officially took over as owner of the store in the fall of 2015, learning all she could about the book business from Lorber in the meantime.

Hendry sells and purchases a wide assortment of books, from cooking manuals to nihilist prose (which to some might seem to be the same thing.) She finds books at estate and library sales, and will acquire inventory through private sales with people looking to offload their collections. She connects with people on Instagram and Facebook and sells books online and is quick to provide alternative solutions if she cannot fulfill a need.

"I believe in supporting any kind of reading," she says, noting that she specializes in books "people might not know they need." Unlike big box bookstores and online merchants, Down in Denver offers a sense of exploration and personalization.

"It's always like looking for treasure."

Part of that treasure is the ephemera that is tucked between pages. Love letters, photos and birth certificates are among her finds, and she hopes to one day compile them into a book.

"I'm still looking for my Holy Grail," she says, pointing to "The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand as her favorite book. A first edition of "On the Road" is part of her collection, as is a wooden board-bound and illustrated copy of "Walden" by Henry David Thoreau. The worth of a book isn't found in its beauty or scarcity, says Hendry.

"A book is only valuable if you read it and learn something from it."

"Down in Denver, down in Denver, all I did was die."

— Jack Kerouac, "On the Road"

Though most of the authors featured on book spines along Down in Denver's walls are long gone, like saints they continue to influence and guide us. We turn to them in times of inquiry or crisis or thank them in flush moments of happiness. And if you fall curious as to which to look to, Hendry is there in her small violet oasis to guide you.

"Bookstores are here and we are going to be here. Whether you are looking for enlightenment or escapism, bookstores are a great place to find it."